“We are studying the pomegranate extract. We are studying also another medicinal plant from India called Butea monosperma, and we are studying a purified compound called woginin, which is from the Chinese traditional medicine system.”

Pomegranate fruit and juice is everywhere. Butea monosperma, or the Flame of the Forest tree, and the compound woginin from the Chinese skullcap flower (Scutellaria baicalensis)are a little less familiar.

Haqqi is testing all of them as potential arthritis medicines.

Healing properties of pomegranatesIn a recent study Haqqi fed rabbits with surgically induced arthritis a pomegranate extract both before and after the surgery.

Pomegranates were known to ancient peoples as a mystical and healthful fruit. Researchers at NEOMED now find its a powerful tool in treating arthritis.

Credit ANTTI T. NISSINEN / FLICKR CC

He found that the cartilage in the knees of rabbits that ate pomegranates was relatively untouched by arthritis.

“We are not seeing the cartilage degradation here," says Haqqi, "because the enzymes which are involved in matrix breakdown are not being allowed to go up.”

Haqqi says compounds in the pomegranates migrate to the synovial fluid surrounding the knee joints, seep into the cells, and block the breakdown of the tissue.

One of his students is testing an extract of flowers from the Flame of the Forest tree to see if it has a similar effect in humans.

Flame of the Forest flowersMohammad Ansari shows me a petri dish with a thin layer of liquid that he says contains five million cells, which under a microscope look like misshapen polygons.

Mohammad Ansari works in the Haqqi lab at NEOMED studying the therapeutic properties of flowers from the Flame of the Forest tree, a traditional Indian medicinal plant.

Credit JEFF ST.CLAIR / WKSU

All the cartilage in your body, your knees, your nose, your ears, all of it comes from this one type of cell.

In the petri dish Ansari treats the chondrocytes with an inflammatory protein called Interleukin 1 betathat triggers the breakdown of cartilage – basically inducing arthritis - then he adds the Flame of the Forest flower extract.

Ansari says compounds from the flower extract called polyphenols stop the cartilage breakdown.

“They inhibit these pathways," that cause inflammation, Ansari says, and boost the growth of the cartilage matrix.

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